Archaeology in Arkadia

Loutra Iraeas near the Ladonas bridge has sulphur springs which may have been popular in antiquity. Very good mosaics are present in what used to an ancient bathhouse, in an area known also as Liadora.

Having gathered settlers from all over Arkadia, Megalopolis offered temples to many gods such as Zeus, Asclepius, the Mother of the Gods and more. Its ruins include the Stoa of Philippos, Sanctuary of Zeus Soter, Stoa of Myropolis and a Bouleterion.

This may be the site of Ancient Brasiae or Brasias with remains of a very ancient acropolis lying on the hill above Agios Andreas, with ruins from Palasgian times. Graves from different periods are also present.

Just 10 km from Tripoli in the plain of Milia lie the remains of Ancient Mantineia (or Mantinea) and its acropolis. There are traces of temples, a theatre, an agora and other buildings. A strange doorless sanctuary dedicated to Poseidon also existed here.

On a small hill near the village of Nestani or Tsipiana there are remains of the Acropolis of Nostia (also Nostea or Nestani). The settlement was part of Ancient Mantineia in the 5th century BC. There are Pelasgian walls and parts of a wall tower, the only evidence of many towers that were part of the wall.

Near Dimitsana there are remains of cyclopean walls, an acropolis, and buildings from the classical era, which could be from the ancient city of Teuthis. The town reached its zenith in the Middle Ages, mentioned in Patriarchal documents in 963.

Excavations have revealed parts of a theatre from the Hellenistic period (175 BC), an agora from the Hellenistic and Roman period, two early Christian basilicas (5th-6th century AD), amazing mosaic floors and parts of a Byzantine settlement (10th-13th century AD). In the middle ages the area was called Nikliou.

At the village of Leonidi there are remains of an ancient acropolis and Pelasgian walls at the hill above the town, around the churches of Agios Athanasios (11th century) and Agios Dimitrios (12th century).

Around 100 rock-cut tombs of different types (chambers, tholoi, pit-graves, well-shaped graves, etc.) and a temple for religious ceremonies have been uncovered here from the late Mycenaean era, matching Homeric texts about Necyia in the Iliad. The sites artefacts are at the Archaeological Museum of Tripoli.

Going back to the the first half of the 4th century BC, this temple is the largest in the Peloponnese after that of Olympian Zeus in Olympia. There are remains of another temple under it from the Archaic period, as well as of a Byzantine basilica from much later.

Four metallurgic kilns were from around 1700 BC, and interestingly from the Roman period as well have been revealed at the site, used for melting and improving copper ores. In Roman times the kilns were probably used to remelt metal scrap.